The Sky Is Falling
by ParanoidButterfly
Summary: [Update Chapter 6/7]Hannibal and Clarice Lecter now have a daughter... but is their love for each other strong enough to survive a visit from the FBI?
1. Default Chapter

Okay, before I begin, I just have a little something to say. I was reading the fanfiction criteria on Loving Lecter the other day, and I noticed a rule about how we shouldn't write fanfics based on the love relationships of Hanni and Clarice nor as them with a family. It said that we don't see Hannibal as a kind man, we see him as cruel and angered. But do we? I'm sorry, but as a Lecterphile, I see the Good Doctor as a kind and understanding man who only strikes against the rude, and can be a little rude himself sometimes when he analyzes. Anyway, I just don't see him as mean and cruel... as Lecterphiles, isn't it our job to prove that theory wrong? And besides, I thought we all agreed, and I know all the Lecterphiles I know do, that Hannibal is indeed not a story about crime or murder, but is a love story overall... about opposites, about Beauty and the Beast. I have always seen Silence as a story about seeing what's really there underneath a person, and I've always saw Hannibal as a story about love surpassing all. So call me a dork, call me what you want, but I say screw it. I'm writing this fanfic because this is what I believe the story is really about. The characters might not be the best they could be, the writing style might need to be improved, but my storyline - The love of Hannibal and Clarice and for their daughter, Mischa, and her love for them - is what matters to me. And I like it, so screw the "rules".   
  
Anyway, it's rated PG-13 for vilolence and language. Yeah.  
  
Summary: Hannibal and Clarice Lecter now have a little girl, but do they love each other enough to stay together even after a visit from the FBI?  
  
Once again, if u and b and i are there between arrows, it should mean italics, underline, or bold.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them, but you already know that.  
  
uThe Sky Is Falling/u  
  
|The sky is falling  
Voices crying out in desperation  
Hear them calling  
Yet you can never save yourself| - Plumb  
  
Beyond the eyes of Saints and priests, in the unforseen world of the darkest types of evil, he still hides. "Who is he?" you may ask, though a reply may not be given, for his name is spoken only to those few; Those few brave souls who dare to wonder into his shrine.   
  
Yet, once, a young woman did enter into his house, his palace of memories and darkness. Many will argue over whether she was, too, led into his "evil", or if perhaps this man, this human form of Satan, was not "evil", as the world did look upon him, but, just perhaps, he was a kind man underneath, one who could love greater than any other and who could see past all the true evils in the world to see the one meaning that was hidden in her eyes. Just perhaps.   
  
Either way, whichever theory you choose to believe, the results still come out the same; Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the form of Satan, and FBI Special Agent, Clarice Starling, the fallen angel, did become friendly, and soon enough, more than friendly. Their first and only child, a daughter, was born exactly four years after they had left everything behind for a life together. The child, the mixture of good and evil, was named Mischa; This is her story.   
  
  
~~~  
  
Mischa Clarice Lecter was born in the darkness of her home on a cold January night. The Lecters had lived in Paris, France at the time, though they left only a week after to flee the eyes of the FBI. Young Mischa was raised in the shadows, always hiding and lying to and from those whom she passed. She was raised to speak four different languages; French, Spanish, Italian and English. Education, besides family and freedom, was the most important factor of her childhood.   
  
Eventually, the FBI chased them from the home she was raised in, and they arrived in a small town within Canada, where this story begins.   
  
Mischa looked much like both of her parents; She had long, silky dark red hair and deep green eyes, mixed with maroon around the pupils. She was thin, weighing 100 pounds even at the age of thirteen to be exact. From her mother she had her structure, hair, eyes and the impatient and adventurous personality. From her father, she had her eyes, intelligence and the desire to harm those who did harm to her.   
  
"Hannibal Lecter... a father?!" one might ask, or one might even ask the same for the smart-mouthed Clarice Starling, but as unexpected as it is, both were indeed very loving and trusting parents. They hadn't wanted children, but they excepted and grew to love the pregnancy and the waiting for the life they had created to walk the earth.   
  
If one were to ask Lecter about the birth of his daughter, it would bring tears to his eyes. It is hard to believe that anything could bring tears to the eyes of Lecter, but this, of all things, does. He never expected children, nor did he ever expect to see his younger sister, Mischa, ever again; But when little Mischa was born, he knew that he had gotten one last chance to look into her eyes, and it was Heaven for him. Sheer bliss among the world of hate he had created.  
  
She grew, growing more and more beautiful every year. One day, though both parents never expected it, she grew into a young woman. 


	2. The Sky Is Falling...

Hey, first of all, to those who commented, thanks so much. Generally I don't like what I write, but I love this story and it's great to know that others are enjoying it, too. And thanks for the feed-back on the Loving Lecter "rules"... It's also great to know that people actually agree with me once in a while, lol. Anyway, my sincere thanks, you all rule.  
  
  
Chapter Two.  
  
"Dad, honestly," she said with a laugh.   
  
He laughed too. "I am being honest! Are you accusing your father of lying?"  
  
She giggled more. "That doesn't look like a duck! How do you even see a duck?! It's so an eagle."  
  
"It is not. It's a duck."  
  
"Daddy!" she cried, laughing.  
  
The Lecter family spent many days like this, out in the sun, looking to the sky. It had been one of Mischa's favorite games ever since she was just a baby to guess what the clouds looked like. Thirteen years later, she still loved it.   
  
"Would you two stop it?" Starling begged. "It's embarrassing. What will the neighbors think?" Everything was silent for a few moments. "Besides, it looks like a cat," she added.  
  
Both Lecter and Mischa laughed, Mischa rolling across the ground from where her and her father had been lying.   
  
She rolled onto her elbows, pushing her upper body upward and resting her chin onto her palms. "Mom, what did you and your parents do for fun?" she asked, simply.  
  
Starling smiled bitterly as she put the book she was reading down onto the blanket. "Well, my mother never did much of anything. She cooked, she cleaned. She always sent me outside to play with your aunts and uncles."  
  
"What were they like?" Mischa asked, more enthused.   
  
"Your Aunt Lindsay was a lot of fun. We were best friends. We liked to pretend that we were rabbits a lot; We would run into the house and steal carrots and lettuce from Mom's salad. Mom got so angry when she found out..." She replied with a laugh. Mischa laughed, too  
  
"Did I ever do anything like that?" Mischa asked, pushing herself up from her elbows and sitting.   
  
"No..." Starling said, crawling over to her daughter. "You were just a weird child. Always reading, always playing piano. But you know one thing that you did normal?" She asked, stopping her crawling and sitting.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"You always loved," she said, inching closer, "To be tickled!" and with that she attacked, leaving Mischa laughing helplessly on the grass.  
  
"Mo...m...stop!" She screatched.  
  
Starling backed off across the ground as Mischa, laughing, sat herself back up. "That's so old, Mom."  
  
"'That's so old, Mom', 'That's so old, Mom'," she mocked. "You're NEVER too old for your mother, Young Lady."  
  
"Your Mom has a point," Lecter added in.  
  
Mischa rolled her eyes.  
  
"Do you have homework?" Starling asked, standing up and walking back to the blanket.  
  
"Mom, it's Saturday."  
  
"I don't care. Do you have homework?"  
  
"Yes. A page in math and lesson eighteen in French."  
  
"Bon. Tu parle français trés bien." (Good. You speak French very well.)  
  
"Oui, je sais. That's why it's easy and I can do it TOMORROW!" she said, sticking out her tongue. (Yes, I know.)  
  
"Do as your mother says, Mischa."  
  
"But Da-"  
  
"Mischa."  
  
"Fine! But I'll be back her in ten minutes." She ran off through the sliding glass doors into the house.  
  
Starling laughed. "Ah, the innocence of the youth, even if they aren't that innocent..." she said, folding the blanket off of the hill.  
  
"She's still innocent. What her parents have done should not affect her life."  
  
"But it does, and it will. You and I both know that."  
  
"After she's eighteen, how much different will it be for her, Clarice?"  
  
"She'll never be able to go by her real name. She'll always be Mischa Lavigne, never Mischa Lecter. And with the way we've always moved, she's never had true friends, she'll never trust people..."  
  
He came to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry about Mischa. She has your spirit."  
  
She chuckled. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"She'll never give up, no matter what the circumstances. She'll always manage to find a way."  
  
Starling smiled before breaking loose from her husband's grasp. "I don't know. I just love her so much, Hannibal..."  
  
"I love her, too, of course, but there's nothing we can do now besides hold out the faith. Clarice, she's Hannibal Lecter's daughter."  
  
"That's a comfort?"  
  
He laughed. "It was meant to be."   
  
The sliding doors flew open with a crash as Mischa ran out.  
  
"Done already?!" Starling cried.  
  
"Mom, come on! It's was so easy!"  
  
She smiled. "That's my girl." 


	3. Voices crying out in desperation...

Chapter Three.  
  
"Hi?" she asked, as the man walked into her office.  
  
"Hi, I'm AD John McGregor," he said, extending his arm, "You must be Agent Branch?"  
  
"Yes that's me," she said, as she smiled and took his hand in a warm shake.   
  
"Agent Branch, I know you weren't expecting me, but can I have a quick word with you?"  
  
"Of course, take a seat," she said, motioning towards the chair in front of her desk as she, too, sat.  
  
"Thank you," he said, sitting. "I know that you've had a rough time lately, both in your personal life and in your career."  
  
"Yes, that's correct. I lost my father last month."  
  
"And you have a lawsuit against you for wrongful death."  
  
She looked down. "I was only doing my job. I had a choice to be killed or to kill. Rather or not Mrs. Lamby was the killer we were looking for, she still assaulted me."  
  
"I understand, Agent, but that's not what I'm here to talk with you about."  
  
"What is it then?" she snapped back.  
  
He looked up to her, insulted at her reaction. "Well. First of all, your case reminded me of a case I had to study while I was in the Academy. Agent Branch, do you recall ever hearing of FBI Agent Clarice Starling?"  
  
"Of course. She's MIA, and assumed to have willingly gone along with the mass murderer, Hannibal Lecter. Everyone knows about Courtesan Clarice."  
  
He smiled. "Do you know of her case, then? Where she was slapped with a lawsuit for killing a mother holding her child?"  
  
"Briefly. We had to study it in class. It was one of those 'This Agent screwed up, don't be like her' type things. I don't remember everything."  
  
"Well, instead of forcing her into the lawsuit, a man she worked with, Paul Krendler, took care of the media for her and assigned her on another case. I'm willing to do the same for you."  
  
"If I do remember correctly, Mr. McGregor, she was only assigned to a new case because a wealthy man with information would only talk to her," she said, raising her eyebrows to him.  
  
"That's true," he said, casually. "But this is a very important, unsolved case that I cannot find anyone else with the qualifications to take."  
  
"And that would be?"  
  
"The very case we just talked about... The case of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling."  
  
She stared blankly ahead for a moment before starting in small drifts of laughter. "You're not serious."  
  
He didn't find what was funny. "Yes, yes I am..."  
  
"The is NO way in hell I'm taking that case, Sir."  
  
"And just why not?"  
  
She couldn't help but laugh again. "Why not? For God sakes, with all due respect, Sir, it's Hannibal Lecter!"  
  
"Alright. I see that you much rather loose your job, then," he said, raising from his chair.  
  
She thought for a second. "No... wait."  
  
He turned around.  
  
"Give me until tomorrow and leave the case file here."  
  
He smiled, sitting the file on her desk. "Thank you, Agent Branch. See you tomorrow."  
  
"Goodbye."  
  
More later :) 


	4. Hear them calling...

Chapter Four. Hear them calling...  
  
"Ken, I've found them."  
  
He smiled in the darkness. "Abby will be so pleased. Where are they?"  
  
"A small town. Napanee. Population 5000. The perfect hiding place for a running criminal."  
  
He laughed.  
  
"But what do we do next?"  
  
"Before we tell Abby, we need a plan...something to lure him in..."  
  
"He is with that Agent, but she'd be armed and ready. No way we'd get through her."  
  
"What do you recommend then?"  
  
"Well... this may come as something of a shock..."  
  
There was a long pause.  
  
"Go on..."  
  
"They have a daughter."  
  
The man was silent for a moment, but then smiled. "Perfect." 


	5. Yet you can never save yourself.

Chapter Five. Yet you can never save yourself  
  
"Cide?"  
  
"Kill."  
  
"Philic?"  
  
"Loving."  
  
"Good, that's the last of them," Starling said, putting the note cards down.  
  
"I hope I do good, I so hope I do good," Mischa said with a sigh.  
  
"You will," Starling reassured her. "You know them all perfectly."  
  
From the other room, the sweet vibes of a piano came floating inward. Mischa sighed happily. "Daddy's playing piano again."  
  
Starling smiled. "Come on, let's go."  
  
Lecter sat behind the piano, swaying to the rhythms. Starling took her seat on the couch and Mischa sprawled out on the floor.   
  
The song ended; Starling and Mischa clapped.   
  
Lecter removed his hands from the piano. "Sing for us, will you, Mischa?"  
  
She smiled and made her way to the piano. "What should I sing?"  
  
"Well, even though I disapprove of her voice, and the piano drifts are far too easy, it is the first song your mother and I danced to."  
  
Mischa smiled. "For all those times you stood for me..." she sang, her father playing behind her. "For all the truth that you made me see..For all the joy you brought to my life..."  
  
Mischa sat on the bench and slowly began taking over for her father. "For all the wrongs that you made right..."  
  
Lecter stood up and made his way over to Starling, extending his hand.  
  
"For every dream you made come true, for all the love I found in you..."  
  
She took his hand and wrapped her arms around him as they began to dance.  
  
"I'll be forever thankful, Baby... You're the one who held me up, never let me fall... you're the one who saw me through, through it all..."  
  
They looked into each other's eyes as they spun around in that one small circle, happy, at last.  
  
"You were my strength when I was weak  
You were my voice when I couldn't speak  
You were my eyes when I couldn't see  
You saw the best there was in me  
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach  
You gave me faith 'cause you believed  
I'm everything I am..."  
  
He kissed on the forehead as they spun, both grins still on their faces.  
  
"...because you loved me." 


	6. You were my strength when I was weak...

Chapter Six. You were my strength when I was weak...  
  
Lydia Branch sifted through the file. She didn't want this case. Not at all.  
  
i"Okay, everyone ready?"  
  
"All ready to go."  
  
"Good. Ralph, take the coffee shop. Lydia, take the mail box."  
  
"Will do," she had said.  
  
It was cold; So cold. She shivered as she walked. The adrenaline rushed through her body; She was here to catch the year's most dangerous serial killer.   
  
She sat on the bench as it began to snow. Her heart was beating at an unstoppable rate.  
  
The car she was expecting turned the corner. She thought she'd be sick as she watched it slow to a stop at the edge of the block. It parked. Katie Lamby, the suspected "Star-Killer", stepped out.   
  
Lydia knew what she had to do. She was to act normal. If Lamby walked past, she arrested her. Until then, she did nothing.   
  
Lamby began walking her way. Lydia would never forget how she felt; so excited, yet so angry, so upset that she had taken this job. Lamby was only five feet away. Four...three...two...one... and then she walked past.   
  
Lydia stood up, pulling our her gun. "Kaitlin Lamby, put your hands up where I can see them!"  
  
Lamby swirled around. "Well, well, well..." she toyed.  
  
"Put your hands up!"  
  
"I hate to tell you, Agent, but you have the wrong person."  
  
"Put your hands UP!"  
  
"I didn't kill them. It was my sister. I only knew about it."  
  
"I am not telling you again!"  
  
She pulled her hand out from her coat pocket, revealing a gun.  
  
"Bye," she said, sweetly. Lydia could remember exactly how the pain felt as the bullet peeled through her shoulder. She did the first thing she could think to do; she pulled the trigger on her own gun.  
  
Lamby died instantly with a fatal wound to her heart./i  
  
The memories had brought back tears.  
  
Three days later another murder took place. Six days after that, another. Mrs. Lamby's sister was arrested. She confessed the day after.   
  
Lydia had tried so many times to convince herself that it wasn't her fault, that she did the right thing, but it never worked. Everyone blamed her.  
  
She whipped her tears as the clocked stroke ten. Then she phoned McGregor. 


	7. You were my voice when I couldn't speak....

Chapter Seven. You were my voice when I couldn't speak...  
  
"Get Abby."  
  
Richard Adams and Ken Lennon couldn't even recall how they had become involved with Abigail Mansfield. They had known each other since they were born; all three of them born to parents in the streets, all three of them later taken from their parents to foster homes. They always lived within five miles of each other, always going to the same schools all of their lives. There was just something about them, something that connected them, and they were never separable.   
  
However, there were at one time four of them.   
  
His name was Tony Moore. Of them all, Abby was the closest to him. Some would say they were in love. From his life he had been so, so terribly messed up. When they were only seventeen, his parents had sent him to a psychiatrist. After his third visit, he never came home.   
  
Of course they suspected kidnap or run away at first, but Dr. Lecter was arrested for the murder of another patient only a month after. He confessed to killing Tony sometime later.   
  
Abby stopped talking. She dropped out of school a month before graduation and locked herself in her room. Sometimes she would turn on the TV for the latest news on the Lecter trial, but that's the only thing she ever did.   
  
Once while watching the TV, though, she discovered Mason Verger while he was on the witness stand. He had looked so mad, so angry, so ready for revenge. After she turned 18 she stalked him down. She told him her story and she listened to his. He was ten years older than her, but that didn't matter to either of them.   
  
They talked for eight years, nothing more. When Dr. Lecter escaped, Mason was the first to tell her. They both called the FBI, complained, organized their own search parties. Their first kiss had seemed like just an accident, just a celebration when they thought they had found a clue; But slowly it turned into more. Abby was 26; Mason, 36. They were engaged two years later.   
  
No one understood why Abby went for Mason. After all, she had the great looking, blonde, blue-eyed Richard and the equally good looking brown haired, green eyed Ken. Plus, Abby herself beautiful; Long brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a skinny figure. Mason... Mason was just Mason.  
  
Abby's adopted mother had been diagnosed with cancer shortly before Mason found the famous x-ray. She lived in Canada and Mason hadn't wanted to bug Abby over what he thought at the time would be just nonsense.   
  
She came home after her mother died to find Mason dead, too.   
  
Mason's estate and fortune was left to Abby. Shortly after, she moved Richard and Ken in and made finding Lecter her life - and it was about to pay off.   
  
"Abby," Ken called.   
  
She turned around, her hair falling from over her shoulder. "Yes?" Richard walked in, grinning from ear to ear.   
  
Abby stared at them oddly and took off her reading glasses. "What's going on?"  
  
Ken smiled, too. "We found them." 


	8. You were my eyes when I couldn't see...

8. You were my strength when I was weak  
  
It was a normal Monday afternoon. Starling had just arrived back from work (She was a kindergard teacher, something she always wanted to do.). Lecter was at his practice downtown. Young Mischa was making her way home from school. I was just day, just an ordinary day.  
  
For Abby Mansfield, it was the start of revenge.  
  
Abby, Ken, and Richard were sitting in the comfortable seats of their X-type Jag; Abby in the driver, Ken next to her, and Richard in the back. Richard sipped on his Big Gulp from a 7-11 they had passed as Ken continued reading his Men's Health magazine. Abby took a sip of her iced capachino as she watched the streets below.   
  
Between them sat a photo of Mischa, dark red hair flowing in the wind.  
  
Mischa Lecter wasn't suspecting anything as she walked. It was a boring day at school, as usual. She was too smart to be in most of the classes she was. Jenny, her best friend, had been absent. Then again, she was aware that all her life with her friends was a lie; there were so many things had to keep secret, so many things that she couldn't even tell Jenny or any of her other close friends. At least not until her parents were gone, but she didn't want to think about that day.  
  
She was wearing tight, black, velvet bellbottoms with a white tank top that had "Daddy's Girl" on it, written sideways across a "21". Her backpack was swung over her back, her purse on her right shoulder. Her long hair was down, flowing over the backpack.   
  
She walked in a slow stride down the block, She could see the sign for "Malway" in the distance; Her street.  
  
As she turned the corner, she walked across the street to their small, yet beautifully and expensively, decorated house.   
  
Abby perked as she saw the red hair at the end of the street. She smacked Ken who dropped his magazine with a "Ow!" and thumped Richard's coke, he cried out in protest. She pointed low, under the steering wheel, as they watched the door be opened by none other than Clarice Starling.  
  
Abby laughed. "It's them! It's really them!" 


End file.
